A Different Kind of Madness
by Disgruntled Peony
Summary: When a mission goes bad, Hobbes gets injected with an experimental (and very dangerous) drug; the consequences aren't pretty.


Title: A Different Kind of Madness

Category: Action/Adventure

Rating: PG

Season/Sequel info: Takes place during the first season, after 'Impetus' but before 'TOIM'.

Disclaimer: These aren't my characters, I'm just taking a few creative liberties with them.  Don't worry, you'll get 'em back unharmed (for the most part).

Author's notes: This is the fic that time forgot.  I wrote this at least a year ago, back when we were still watching the first twelve episodes of the first season and Hobbes and Darien were starting to trust each other but weren't quite there yet.  I actually wrote this before my first 'officially posted' fic, but when I asked my mom if I could post it, she said she'd rather I wrote it up into a script instead so we could try to sell it to Stu Segall Productions.  I started to do that, but never finished, and eventually I pretty much forgot that it existed.  But I just recently dug it out of the archives of my computer and decided what the hey?  I might as well post it.  :)  Oh, one more thing- this was also written just after Oboecrazy posted that  quote challenge to IMfanfic.  Just shows how long ago I really wrote this, huh?  ;)  Anyway, there are three quotes from the show nestled in here somewhere (although I could only find two of 'em when I read this over, and I'm the one who wrote it!  And oh my goodness, this is the longest author's note I've ever written.  If you guys actually made it all the way through this you get a cherry coke!  :)

Darien Fawkes sat across from Bobby Hobbes in the food court of the mall, burger in hand.  Hobbes was attempting to take a bite out of a massive submarine sandwich, but various parts of the sandwich kept falling out.  Darien looked on, unsure whether the scene playing out before him was humorous or just plain irritating.  He decided on the latter.  

Fawkes and Hobbes had been sent on a stakeout to, of all places, the mall.  They had been there for nearly four hours and, while it had proved to be quite an adequate place for the two to compare their interests in women, there had been absolutely no sign of their quarry.  Frankly, Darien was getting quite bored.  

"There's a nice one," Fawkes said, pointing to a short brunette that was walking by.  Hobbes shook his head, his mouth full of sandwich.  He chewed for a moment, then swallowed.

"Ah, she's too short." Glancing around Hobbes finally spotted a woman that suited his tastes.  "Now she's hot," he said, pointing to a tall woman with short blonde hair.  

"Uh-uh.  Too thin." After a minute Darien gestured to a woman with brilliant red hair and a rather large chest area. "That's more like it."  

At that moment a woman with spiked green hair, a nose ring, and black lipstick, fingernails, and clothing passed by.  Both men looked at each other, eyebrows raised.  "No way," they said at the same moment, their expressions perfectly mirroring each other.  

Suddenly Hobbes got up and began walking toward the exit.  Darien was puzzled until he saw Hobbes glance surreptitiously at the entrance.  Standing there was Eduardo Ramirez, the man Darien and Hobbes had spent almost four hours in the mall waiting to catch.  Darien waited a couple of minutes and then headed for the men's room.

Moments later Darien emerged, wearing a headset and covered in quicksilver from head to toe.  He walked over to Ramirez, who was pulling up to the table next to the one Hobbes and Darien had been occupying moments earlier.  He sat there for a couple of minutes and then a man in a blue business suit approached him.  Darien watched curiously as the man sat down and placed a briefcase on the table.

"Do you have it?" Ramirez asked the man calmly.  The man nodded, sweat dripping down his collar.  He pulled the briefcase onto the table and opened it, revealing four full syringes and several bottles filled with a greenish liquid.  Ramirez's face seemed to light up and he reached out to take the case, but the man pulled it away quickly.  

"I want my pay first," the man said, feeling a little bolder than he had before.  Ramirez's expression darkened, but he pulled a large envelope from his coat pocket and laid it on the table.  The man picked it up and opened it, revealing a large number of hundred dollar bills.  His eyes widened at the sight, as did Darien's.  The man pushed the briefcase across the table.  Darien turned his back on the two men, fingering his headset.

"Now," he whispered, glancing at the mall entrance.  Seconds later Hobbes came bursting through the door, gun in one hand and badge in the other.  He was followed closely by three police officers.  

"Federal agent, you're under arrest," Hobbes yelled.  Ramirez turned around calmly, then turned back to the other man and shot him with a gun he had been hiding under his coat.  Darien jumped back in surprise, barely avoiding the spray of blood.  He turned to yell a warning at Hobbes, but he had already seen the gun and was pointing his own at Ramirez.  Darien suddenly realized that he was standing directly in Hobbes' line of fire and moved quickly, not wanting to be in the way in case Hobbes decided to pull the trigger.  

"Well, you've got me," Ramirez said calmly, placing his hands behind his head.  Darien frowned.  Something was wrong; he seemed a little too at ease.  Darien walked over to the case as Hobbes prepared to cuff Ramirez.  There were the bottles, three syringes, and- an empty space in the Styrofoam packaging.  

"Hobbes-" Darien whirled around just in time to see Ramirez stab the missing needle into Hobbes' arm and inject its contents forcefully into his body.  

Hobbes fell to the floor and Ramirez took full advantage of the momentary distraction it caused the policemen.  He made a break for the exit, legs pumping furiously.  Darien wasted no time; he began running after the other man at a breakneck pace.  He brought Ramirez down in a football tackle, the quicksilver flaking off his body as they fell.  Ramirez looked up at him in astonishment.  Darien's face had a look on it that made Ramirez' blood run cold. 

One of the policemen pulled Darien off of Ramirez and cuffed the criminal's arms behind his back.  Darien immediately rushed over to Hobbes' side, desperately hoping that his partner was okay.  Hobbes started to sit up as Darien drew near.  Darien reached down to help him up but Hobbes jerked his arm away, looking up at Darien with what could only be described as sheer terror in his now glassy eyes.  

"Hobbes, are you okay-" Hobbes pushed Darien away from him with all his might, sending Darien flying.  Hobbes scrambled to his feet and ran off into the main section of the mall, leaving a very confused and worried Darien sprawled on the floor behind him.

Darien pulled himself up and stormed outside, where the Official had been overseeing the operation in the brown van.  "What's going on here?" Darien demanded, grabbing the Official's arm and whirling him around.  The Official looked Darien square in the eye.  Darien gazed back unflinchingly, refusing to back down.  

"What do you mean?" the Official asked calmly, brushing off Fawkes' arm as if it were a fly that was bothering him instead of one of his most important agents.  

"What's in those needles?" Darien asked, shoving the briefcase in the Official's face.  The Official stared gravely at the contents of the briefcase and turned away, preventing Darien from seeing his expression.  Darien stood there, waiting for an answer.

"For several months now Ramirez has been selling experimental drugs on the black market.  The man Ramirez shot had been stealing them from the labs and selling them to him.  The most recent drug stolen was an experimental chemical," the Official could feel Darien's eyes boring into his skull as he continued, "a biological weapon that increases a soldier's fear to the highest possible level without killing him, making him a danger to his fellow soldiers."

"Is there an antidote?"

The Official turned back around, his expression one of resignation.  "Yes, but we don't have it."  Darien stared at him in disbelief.  

"Why didn't you tell me this was more than a regular job?"

"It was a need to know operation-"

"When are you going to cut the crap?  *I* needed to know." Darien's face took on a pained expression.  "If I'd known I might have been able to stop this from happening." He turned around and began to walk away, grabbing a cell phone from a nearby agent as he went.

"Where are you going?"

"To find my partner.  If you need to reach me, call me on this."

"How do you know Hobbes hasn't already left the building?"

Darien turned around, his eyes filled with anger.  "Well if he has then we're all in trouble, aren't we?"

                                    ************************

Darien checked section after section of the mall, desperately searching for his partner.  He didn't know what he would do when he found Hobbes, he just knew his partner needed him and he wasn't going to let him down.  Not this time, anyway.  He checked the cell phone's battery; it was about halfway charged.  He hoped it was enough.

Darien tapped a young woman on the arm.  "Excuse me but have you seen a man about this tall," he indicated Hobbes' approximate height, "kind of bald, dark hair, with shifty eyes and a gun?"  The woman looked at Darien as if he were crazy.  Darien realized what he had just said, sheepishly muttered something along the lines of "Never mind," and walked away.

A couple of stores later Darien asked a cashier the same question, but this time he didn't mention the gun.  The cashier told him she had seen Hobbes pass by recently, heading in the direction of the south entrance.  Darien headed out that way immediately, so eager at the prospect of finding his partner that he failed to notice he was being followed.  

As he neared the south entrance Darien began to search even harder for Hobbes, but he saw nothing to indicate that his partner had passed through.  He wondered if the cashier had been lying, but dismissed the thought as some of Hobbes' paranoia rubbing off on him.  But thirty minutes and half a dozen stores later, Darien still had yet to see any sign of his partner.  Either Hobbes was really good at hiding or he had already left the building.  And if that were the case it would be nearly impossible to find him.  

Tired and desperately in need of a restroom, Darien headed to the nearest one and threw open the first available stall.  He relieved himself and washed his hands in the sink.  Then he leaned down and splashed water on his face, enjoying the feeling of the cool water on his skin.  He glanced at the mirror.  He was a mess.  His hair was sticking out even more than usual, his eyes were bloodshot- Darien glanced at his tattoo hurriedly, but he was still in the clear- and his clothes were rumpled.  In short, he looked like a piece of crap.  But there was another reflection in the mirror, someone that looked like-

"Hobbes!" Darien whirled around and came face to face with his partner's gun.  "Hobbes?" Darien repeated questioningly, a worried expression on his face.  It was Hobbes all right, but the look in his eyes was completely foreign.  It was the look of a wild animal that has been cornered, a look of stark fear.  

"Hands in the air!" Hobbes ordered, brandishing his gun at arm's length and shoving it in Darien's face.  Darien did as he was told.  Hobbes spun him around and patted him down, grabbing the cell phone out of Darien's pocket.  Convinced that Darien wasn't carrying any weapons Hobbes stepped back, but he didn't lower the gun.  Darien started to turn back around, but Hobbes jammed his gun into Darien's back.  "Oh no you don't.  Stay right there and don't move a muscle.  If you try anything I'll shoot you."

"Hobbes…" Darien said in an irritated tone of voice.  The faint nuzzle of the gun at his ribs silenced him.  

"Shut up."  Hobbes flipped open the cell phone and dialed a number, keeping his gun trained on Darien the entire time.  "Yeah, I want to speak to the Official.  No, it can't wait."  Hobbes was silent for a minute and then he started talking into the phone rapidly, his eyes shifting nervously from Darien to the bathroom door.  

Darien didn't listen closely to what Hobbes was saying.  He was too busy trying to figure out how to get out of this mess.  He looked around the room but didn't see anything that would be of immediate help.

"...and I want you to order all the guards that you've placed around the doors to back off.  I want a car waiting outside the east entrance with the keys inside.  I'll tell you more after I'm on the road."  Hobbes clicked the phone shut and turned toward Darien.  "Sounds like the Official is willing to negotiate."

"Negotiate what?"

"Don't you ever listen?  Negotiate for your release, you dupe."  

Darien frowned.  "So you're holding me hostage?"

"You bet."

"We're partners!  You don't hold your partner hostage!" Darien exclaimed angrily.

"Why not?"

"Well…" Darien hadn't been prepared for the question. "Its- it's just not right."  Hobbes rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about your big fat conscience."

"Hey, I thought you said for the car to be at the east entrance," Darien said suddenly, "But we're nowhere near there."

"That was a decoy.  Now all the agency's men will be at the east entrance, allowing us to slip through the south entrance unnoticed."

"Oh yeah, brilliant plan.  There's only one problem.  That means no car."

"Not a problem.  We'll walk."  

"And what happens when the Official realizes we aren't going to show up?"

"By then we'll be long gone."  

At that moment a man walked in through the bathroom door.  He took one look at the scene in front of him and ran back out, screaming for the police.  Hobbes nearly had a heart attack; he whirled and pointed the gun where the man had been just moments before, but before he fired Darien leapt at him, knocking the gun out of his hands and pushing him to the floor.

The two of them grappled on the floor, arms and legs flailing.  Darien seemed to be getting the upper hand until Hobbes kicked him backwards, causing him to knock his head against a sink.  He slumped to the ground, barely conscious.  Hobbes retrieved his gun and stood up, pulling out a pair of handcuffs and snapping them around Darien's wrists.  

"Sorry pal," Hobbes said, shaking his head, "but you're not going anywhere."

Hobbes yanked Darien to his feet.  Darien gasped in pain, rubbing the rapidly forming lump on the back of his head.  "Hey, watch the head!"

Hobbes shook his head in disgust.  "You are such a wimp."

"Hey, you try suffering through a bout of quicksilver madness sometime.  We'll see who's the wimp then."  

"Shut up and get going."  Hobbes pushed Darien in the direction of the door, then paused for a second.  "Quicksilver the cuffs. Now."  Darien did as Hobbes asked, but he shot his partner an evil glare as he stepped out the door.  The two of them walked through the south entrance without incident, but when they stepped outside the man they had startled in the bathroom came running toward them, several agency operatives following in his wake.

"That's the man who was waving a gun around!" the man said, pointing toward Hobbes, who immediately broke out running, dragging Darien along by his now visible cuffs.  Hobbes shot back wildly in the general direction of the agency men, managing to cause a lot of confusion without actually hitting anybody.  Darien just struggled to keep his balance as his partner dragged him across the mall parking lot and into the nearby woods.

After a few minutes of running Darien lost his balance completely and fell to the ground, dragging Hobbes down with him.  The two of them lay on the forest floor gasping for a few seconds, and then Hobbes stood slowly to his feet.  "Get up."

"Of course, slave driver," Darien muttered, pulling himself to his feet and brushing the dry leaves off his clothes.  He straightened his shoulders and pulled himself up to his full height, glaring angrily down at his partner.  "Is hightailing it into the woods part of your master plan?"

"I'm playing it by ear, okay?"  Hobbes looked around, trying to figure out a route back to the city that didn't involve stopping by the mall.  Darien noticed that Hobbes was breathing more heavily than before and that his eyes were looking wilder.  He remembered what the Official had said.  *A biological weapon that increases a soldier's fear to the highest possible level without killing him.*

"You okay?" Darien asked, trying to make the question seem as offhand as possible.

"I'm fine," Hobbes said, "Just a little nervous." It was pretty obvious that he was lying. He was obviously scared out of his mind.  Darien might have felt sorry for him if he wasn't currently being held at gunpoint.  But the way things had turned out so far there was no way in the world Hobbes was going to get any sympathy.  

************************

The Official walked over to the brown van, where the Keeper had set up a makeshift lab.  She was synthesizing the cure for the drug that that fool Ramirez had injected into Hobbes.  "How's it coming?" the Official asked, looking over her shoulder. 

"It's almost ready."

"Good."  The Official walked away and pulled out a radio.  "Status report."  One by one the search teams he had sent out into the woods reported back, but all of them were negative.  The Official sighed; he hoped that one of his men would find Hobbes before he did something rash like shooting Fawkes.  If that happened, Hobbes would very quickly find himself out of a job.

************************

"This way," Hobbes said, gesturing off toward Darien's right.  The two men walked in silence for several minutes.  Finally Hobbes broke the silence.  "Sorry for bringing you into this, partner.  But now that you're involved I can't let you go."

"Well, could you at least get that gun out of my face?"  Hobbes put the gun away, but he kept his hand near it.  "Thanks."

"No problem."

There was silence for a few minutes, then Darien spoke.  "You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," Hobbes snapped, but his actions belied his words.  He was glancing around nervously and he jumped at every unexpected sound.

"No you're not," Darien said, shaking his head.  "That stuff Ramirez injected you with is affecting your thinking.  We need to go back to the mall."

"No!"  Hobbes practically yelled, "No way!  The whole thing was probably a setup.  The Official probably knew about the whole thing in advance!  They figured they could experiment on me or something.  For all I know you could be in on it!"

"Do you really think that low of me?" Darien asked quietly, looking at Hobbes sadly.  Hobbes realized what he had been accusing his partner of and mentally kicked himself.  Darien had been an experiment himself; he wouldn't participate in anything like that...  Would he?  Hobbes immediately forced himself to stop his current train of thought.

"No, I know you wouldn't do anything like that.  Guess I'm a little paranoid right now, huh?"

Darien laughed, shaking his head.  "Now that's the understatement of the century."  Once again there was silence, but now it was more comfortable.  After a minute Darien spoke again.  "So did you really think that blonde was hot?"  The two of them laughed, and they struck up a conversation that was relatively normal.  At least, normal until the ground suddenly gave way under Darien's feet and he slid down a steep slope, bumping into several trees and large rocks before finally landing at the bottom of a deep ravine.

"Fawkes?" Hobbes called down to his partner worriedly.  There was no answer.  Hobbes climbed down the hill, going as fast as he could without falling himself.  When he reached the bottom he rushed to his partner's side, immediately checking his pulse.  It was there, though a little fainter than Hobbes would have liked.  As for Hobbes, his pulse was racing.  Now that he didn't have anyone to distract him from his fears and suspicions his imagination was already beginning to run wild.

Hobbes drew his gun and sat down beside his partner, fully prepared to shoot anything that moved.  Nothing was going to get anywhere near his partner, not animals or those agency goons.  Not while Bobby Hobbes was on the job.

                                    *************************

Darien slowly floated back to consciousness; he immediately wished he hadn't.  His head was pounding intensely, as was his left leg.  He tried to pull himself up into a more comfortable position but his leg protested immediately.  He gasped in pain, causing Hobbes to jump in the air and spin around, aiming his gun at Darien's chest.  

"Whoa, easy there Hobbes, it's just me."

"Don't *do* that," Hobbes yelped, lowering his gun in relief.  He was looking much worse than he had before.  Darien frowned.  

"Hobbes, this is no time for your freako-wacko act."

"Whaddaya mean, mine?  You're the one who could go nuts on me any second."

"Yeah, but I don't have a gun.  And besides, the way my leg's feeling I don't think I'd be able do much damage anyway."

"I'm going to check you for injuries.  Tell me where it hurts, okay?"  Hobbes knelt down beside his partner, probing him for injuries.  When he touched Darien's leg he was rewarded with a loud yelp.

"Leave me alone, it hurts bad enough without you making it worse!" Darien yelled, trying to move away but only from his partner but only inflicting more pain on himself.  He sat still for a minute to catch his breath.  After he had calmed himself down he looked back up at Hobbes.  "Go get help."

"What?"

"Go get help.  I think I'm hurt pretty bad, and its not like I can get up and walk out of here."

"You sure?"

Darien tried moving again, and barely managed to stifle a cry of pain.  "I'm sure."

"All right then."  Hobbes began to walk out of the gully.

"Hobbes?"

He turned around, facing Darien.  "Yeah?"

"Take care of yourself, and don't shoot anyone.  It wouldn't be good for your record."

"Well, I can't promise anything, but...  I'll try, okay?"

"Close enough, I guess."

"Do me a favor and don't go psycho on me while I'm gone, okay?"

Darien smiled weakly.  "Well, I can't promise anything either, but I'll do my best."  The two partners nodded at each other and Hobbes walked off to find help, leaving Darien alone with his thoughts.  

************************

Hobbes walked rapidly through the woods, keeping his hand beside his gun at all times.  He would have been running but he needed to make sure that he wouldn't miss any landmarks that he had noticed on his way from the mall.  He didn't want to go back there, but the Keeper was there and she was probably the nearest doctor for miles.  Besides, maybe his suspicions were false and there wasn't a big conspiracy that had was bent on his destruction...  Fat chance, he told himself.  He was rapidly beginning to think that leaving Fawkes hadn't been such a good idea after all.  In his opinion Darien had been the only thing between him and a bullet, and now his security was gone.

Hobbes was breathing hard now, his fears starting to get the better of him.  His eyes darted from tree to tree; he was convinced that there were agency men hiding behind each one.  He realized that at some point he had begun running.  He stopped to catch his breath; apparently he had started running a while ago.  He was just about to start out again when he heard a twig snap.  

Hobbes' senses were immediately on full alert as he sought out what had made the sound.  He spun around frantically, trying to see in all directions at once.  Finally the thing that had made the noise made itself visible.  Hobbes nearly laughed in relief; it was just a squirrel.  

He continued on his way, a little less wary now.  A few minutes later Hobbes heard another twig cracking, but dismissed it from his mind as another small animal.  At least, until he heard the somewhat muffled sound of a gunshot and felt a tranquilizer dart hit him in the shoulder.  He managed to get out one word before he collapsed in a heap on the forest floor.

The man who had tranquilized Hobbes stepped out of the bushes followed by his partner, who had just radioed the Official, telling him that the manhunt could be cancelled.  "What did he say?" The first man asked as he began to pick Hobbes up off of the ground.  "Just something about a fox," the second replied, assisting his partner in carrying Hobbes out of the small clearing.

************************

Darien lay on the ground, becoming more and more worried as time passed.  It was beginning to get dark, and he had yet to see any sign of Hobbes- or anyone else, for that matter.  The pain in his leg had gone from agonizing to barely noticeable in the past couple of hours; Darien wasn't sure if that was good or bad.  But a recent glance at his tattoo had alerted him to the fact that he needed a shot of counteragent soon, and that was bad.  Especially considering that the Keeper was several miles away.  

"Things can't get much worse than this," he muttered to himself.  Absentmindedly rubbing the back of his neck, Darien looked around at the gully he was trapped in.  There wasn't much in the way of scenery, just a few dry leaves and a stump and a snake coiled in the grass and- a snake?  Darien did a double take, eyes widening.  It was a rattlesnake, and a big one at that.  Suddenly Darien was a lot more worried than he had been before.  

"Oh crap."  Darien froze, trying as hard as he could not to spook the snake.  Unfortunately at that point the gland chose to remind him he was in desperate need of a shot.  Darien hissed in pain, clasping the back of his neck and writhing on the ground.  His leg immediately began hurting again, causing him to yelp involuntarily.  The snake began rattling its tail with a vengeance, curling up into the position to strike.

Darien stared at the snake, barely able to keep himself from quicksilvering in fright.  "Hobbes?" he yelled, desperately hoping his partner was near enough to hear his voice.  "HOBBES?"

                                    ************************

Hobbes came to with a start, face to face with a very angry-looking Keeper and an even angrier-looking Official.  He said the first thought that came to mind.  "Oh crap."  He shook his head; he had been hanging around his partner too long.  

"Where is Fawkes?"  The Official asked in a menacing tone, towering over Hobbes, who was lying on the floor of the brown van.

"I don't know."

"I'm not going to let the Keeper give you the antidote until you tell me.  Now where is Fawkes?" The Official said, his eyes narrowing into slits.  

"I told you, I don't know!"  Hobbes suddenly remembered the condition he had left his partner in and added, "But you'd better find him quick, he's hurt pretty bad.  He fell down a hill."  The Official pondered for a moment and then stepped back, allowing the Keeper to inject Hobbes with a rather large needle.  Hobbes winced as it broke his skin.  Now I know why Fawkes wants the gland out of his head, Hobbes thought bitterly, he can't stand the shots.  

Almost immediately Hobbes' anxiety levels began to decrease.  Two and a half minutes later, he was back to normal- or at least, normal for him.  He climbed out of the van, shooting the Keeper an annoyed look on the way out, and walked over to where the Official was conversing with his other agents, who by now had all returned.  Hobbes watched from the sidelines, ignoring the looks he received from the other agents as well as he could.

"You will spread out in four man search parties and comb the entire woodland area.  Move as quickly and efficiently as you can, I'd like to find Fawkes before dark," The Official said, then pulled out a map of the woods.  "Team A, you will search this area, team B will search here..." The Official proceeded to split up the entire forest between the group.  Hobbes wasn't at all surprised to find that he was not among those sent out to search.

After the rest of the agents were dismissed Hobbes pulled the Official aside.  "I'd like to help.  It's my fault Fawkes is out there, and I'd like to make amends."

"Oh, you'll be making amends for a long time."  Hobbes took the implied threat in stride; he'd been expecting it.  

"I know, believe me.  But I feel responsible for Fawkes' predicament and I think helping to find him might ease my conscience a little bit."

"Well, whatever helps you sleep at night," the Official said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  

"Then I can go?"

"Yes, but take the Keeper with you.  She'd prove useful in treating Fawkes' injuries."  And babysitting me, Hobbes added silently.  Just because he no longer had that drug in his system didn't mean he was no longer paranoid.  

************************

Nearly an hour- and several miles- later, there was still no sign of Fawkes.  Hobbes was beating himself up inside; after all, it was his fault that Fawkes was out there in the first place.  The Keeper gently touched his arm, pulling him out of his thoughts.  He looked at her, his face a picture of remorse.

"It wasn't your fault," the Keeper said quietly.

"Yes it was."  Hobbes turned around and walked off into the woods.  Mere seconds later he came running back, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.  "I know where to find him!"

"Where?" the Keeper asked, her eyes lighting up as well.

"This way," Hobbes said, motioning for her to follow him.  "We stopped here to rest," he said, pointing at a large tree.  "And then we walked over here-" he practically ran over to a large rock formation, "-and took a left.  And then we kept going in this direction until-" Hobbes stopped abruptly at the edge of the hill, nearly falling off the edge in his excitement.  However, excitement quickly turned to dismay as his flashlight illuminated Fawkes sprawled on the ground, unconscious or worse.  

Hobbes rushed down the hill, panicking at the sight before him.  He skidded to a stop a few feet from Darien, followed shortly by the Keeper.  Darien was lying on the ground, showing no visible signs of life.  The Keeper rushed over to Darien's side, checking his pulse.  She found one and sighed in relief.  Hobbes suddenly noticed a dead rattlesnake just inches away from where he was standing and leaped back, his face turning pale.

"Check him for snake bites."  The Keeper looked up at Hobbes in confusion, then noticed the snake and turned back to Darien with widened eyes.  But before she could begin checking him for bites Darien's eyes opened.  He attempted to lunge at her, but was stopped by the pain in his leg.  The Keeper motioned for Hobbes to come over.

"Shine your flashlight here."  Hobbes did as she asked, and Darien's eyes- burning with quicksilver madness- glared back at them.  The Keeper immediately produced the vial of counteragent she had brought with her for just such an occurrence, pulled out a large needle, and gave Darien his shot.  Darien slumped to the ground, unconscious.  

"Let's get him out of here."  Hobbes and the Keeper each put one of Darien's arms around their shoulders and carried him back to the mall, where an ambulance was waiting to take Fawkes to the hospital.

************************

Darien lay in a hospital bed, staring dismally at the ceiling.  He was thoroughly bored.  The doctors had set his leg and he was going to be released from the hospital shortly, but until then Darien had absolutely nothing to do.  He had already counted the number of tiles on the ceiling, and in his particular hospital room there was nothing else to do.  

Suddenly Hobbes walked in the door, carrying a magazine and two cups of coffee.  "Hey," he said cheerfully, "I brought you something to read." 

"I thought you went home," Darien said, smiling and motioning for Hobbes to sit down.

"Bobby Hobbes doesn't bail on his partner!  Besides, I figured you might be getting a little stir-crazy being stuck in a hospital like this."  Hobbes pulled a chair up next to Darien's bed and sat down.  There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds, and then Hobbes began to speak, staring at the floor.  "Listen, about what happened back there in the woods…"

"It's okay.  You were drugged, you weren't thinking clearly."  Hobbes looked up at Darien in surprise.  That was not what he had expected to hear.  Darien shrugged.  "Hey, I've had similar experiences, remember?"

Hobbes nodded, but was unable to except what Darien was saying.  "But it was all my fault.  If I hadn't-"

"If it's anybody's fault its mine.  If I had realized what was about to happen, if I'd just done something-"

"No way is it your fault, Fawkes!  You're the one who broke his leg and nearly got bitten by a rattlesnake!"  Hobbes paused, confusion washing over his features.  He looked back up at Darien and asked, "How'd you manage to avoid that anyway?  I mean, you could barely move."

Darien laughed.  "Well it's a little hazy, but from what I remember I think that snake had a first hand view of just how dangerous quicksilver madness can be."  Both men started laughing loudly, and until Darien was released from the hospital the two of them talked about their day, each offering the other his point of view on the stakeout, the trek through the woods and, most importantly, the women they had been seen at the mall.

The End


End file.
